Beginning with "spiritual" interpretation and anti-Judaic polemic to secure the Pesach institution narrative (Ex 12) for Christian proclamation, major centers of Asia Minor and Syria, then Upper Egypt and the West, develop distinct rhetorical structures that load first the day, then the date of Pascha, with theological meaning. The emergence of the four-gospel canon at the end of the second century enriches, but does not supplant, a dialogue between Christian rituals and the scriptures inherited from Judaism. The Antenicene Pascha takes a fresh approach to the scattered literary remains of the earliest paschal feast by acknowledging them for what they are: relics of heated disputes about ritual boundaries that had elevated the Pascha, an observance with no explicite reference in first century literature, to an icon of unity and orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea. Just as these disputes repeat familiar patterns of establishing Christian identity, much modern scholarship employs hermeneutical categories derived from other conflicts (Great Schism, Reformation) that often obscure, rather than reveal, the history of the paschal celebration. This book will be of value not only to students of the liturgy, but also to those interested in the history of biblical hermeneutics, the canon, and the roots of Christian anti-Judaism.

Very little contemporary evidence for the diversity of Christian paschal practice that preceded the Council of Niceae has survived. A unique exception, however, is the paschal tract of Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea in modern Syria, written at least four decades before the Council. In this he vigorously expounded his own views on the specifically Catholic celebration of the pasch, and supplied considerable detail regarding other paschal traditions with which he disagreed. A full Latin translation of Anatolius has survived in the text De ratione paschali, whose content, however, is technically complex, blending Biblical exegesis, calendrical science, and astronomy. As a result, the work has been generally neglected in modern times and no serious effort made to try to understand its significance. This book presents the first critical edition of the text and provides the first modern study intended to penetrate the meaning of the whole text, and to make it available to a modern reader.

The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. Owing, dear brethren, to the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves, we feel that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention to the points respecting which you consulted us; and especially to that shameful and detestable sedition, utterly abhorrent to the elect of God, which a few rash and self-confident persons have kindled to such a pitch of frenzy, that your venerable and illustrious name, worthy to be universally loved, has suffered grievous injury. For who ever dwelt even for a short time among you, and did not find your faith to be as fruitful of virtue as it was firmly established? Who did not admire the sobriety and moderation of your godliness in Christ? Who did not proclaim the magnificence of your habitual hospitality? And who did not rejoice over your perfect and well-grounded knowledge? For ye did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the commandments of God, being obedient to those who had the rule over you, and giving all fitting honour to the presbyters among you. Ye enjoined young men to be of a sober and serious mind; ye instructed your wives to do all things with a blameless, becoming, and pure conscience, loving their husbands as in duty bound; and ye taught them that, living in the rule of obedience, they should manage their household affairs becomingly, and be in every respect marked by discretion.

"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume VI of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find the writings of: Gregory Thaumaturgus Dionysius, pope of Alexandria Julius Africanus, a Christian historian who wrote a history of the world from Creation to 221 bishops Antolius of Constantinople, Archelaus of Carchar, and Peter of Alexandria Alexander of Cappadocia, bishop of Jerusalem until he was taken prisoner by the Romans Theognostus, Pierius, and Thenas of Alexandria Phileas, a philosopher from Thmuis Pamphilus, patron of the library at Caesarea Malchion, a rhetorician from Antioch Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, who drew up the Acts during the Council of Nicaea the martyr Methodius Arnobius, an early Christian apologist"